


Yellow House on the Right: Chapter One

by rhye



Category: Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-09
Updated: 2007-04-08
Packaged: 2017-10-24 13:07:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhye/pseuds/rhye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Sometime in 1982, Jack divorces Lureen and moved to Durango, Colorado. He continues seeing Ennis, but when Ennis's ranch closes and Junior moves to Texas, Ennis is left with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Against all expectations, he drives down to Colorado to sleep on the couch of a 'friend'. Set in 1997, this story picks up fifteen years later. It's mellow, J&E already living together in domesticity and forever, and contains a lot of OCs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**AN:** This story was originally inspired by the song _Yanksgiving_ by Carolyn Mark. Many thanks to my beta, [](http://judy-blue-cat.livejournal.com/profile)[**judy_blue_cat**](http://judy-blue-cat.livejournal.com/) , who also inspired me to share it. I can't promise any kind of regular updates, so be advised. If that's something you need as a reader, you may want to hold out until later.

Chapter One

Jack scratched his nose. "Yeah." He injected it with false enthusiasm, keeping to himself the fact that he rather liked the country-western singer, and that he felt a deep sting of pride at the patriotic lyrics. But he knew that wasn't what Amy wanted to hear. He loved her to death and didn't really have the know-how of a college education to fight her new-age liberal notions.

Still, there was a part of him that did agree with her, at least about how tacky his outfit was, how blindly loyal his fans were. The women were wearing skimpy little clothes that Lureen wouldn't have been caught dead in at that age, and he had to imagine that maybe there was something a little bit embarrassing about this shameless display of commercialized patriotism. He shook his head a little bit.

Amy's attention had wandered, though. In the intervening moments, the little firecracker had sprawled across the old, orange carpeting next to Jason. Jack wouldn't say it where anyone could hear it, but he thought Amy and Jason were perfect for each other. Jason was chin-height with the Monopoly board, glaring at Kenny across it. Amy was right up against Jason's shoulder, making fun of his dearth of railroads, kicking her legs in the air.

Jack leaned back against the couch, tryptophans, or more likely simple quantity of food, catching up to him. He dozed off to the sound of television commercials, Amy, Jason, and Kenny bickering on the floor, and Jennifer and Susan hard at work in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner. Jennifer's high-pitched voice floated easily over the clanking of dishes.

He was mostly asleep, Guy sprawled along his leg on the couch and purring up a storm, when his ears pricked up and he focused them on the kitchen, still feigning sleep. They were talking about Ennis.

"Yeah."

"I just don't think Jack likes it."

"Yeah, probably not." Susan had never been a conversationalist.

"Hey, what are you getting them for Christmas?"

"Um. Well, I thought I might pay my rent."

Jack couldn't stifle a smile at that. Susan hadn't paid her rent in six months.

Jen laughed. "Want to go partway in on something I have in mind?"

Jack had heard more than he wanted to. He woke and stretched, calling, "Hey! Ladies! When are we going to get some dessert?"

Jen came into the living room doorway, swiping wet hands on her jeans. "When your stupid lughead comes in on fucking Thanksgiving, Jack."

"Hey, watch your language," Kenny muttered.

"Sor-ry." Jen rolled her eyes, but then re-fixed them on Jack.

"Yeah, what the hell you want me to do about it, Jen? I don't control him."

"Well maybe someone should."

Amy snickered.

"No, I'm serious." Jen's temper was rising, The smell of it wafted through the house, and Amy immediately stopped her giggling to turn on the floor and look at Jen. Jen's temper was formidable.

"Su and I cooked this huge Thanksgiving meal, and he's working today. We offered to move the meal, but you know what, he's _always_ working. What the hell? That's rude."

Jack frowned demonstrably. "That how you feel, huh?"

"Well I think it's rude," Jen repeated.

"Yeah?"

"It is a little rude," Kenneth muttered. Jack looked from Kenny back to Jen, rolling his fingers through the cat's fluffy belly hair.

"It is rude." Susan spoke from the kitchen door, eyebrows hitched up. She didn't talk much, but she could be even more fiery than Jen when she was worked up. It took more to work her up, though. She'd developed a tough skin over the years.

"Are you going to talk to him about it?" Jen's voice was sharp. "He can just be such an ass."

Jack leveled his gaze back at Jen. He counted to three. "Good to know how you all feel. If you think he's such an ass, maybe you shouldn't be living with him."

Now Jason was turning from counting his meager Monopoly winnings. Jack's words had caught everyone. But Jen didn't ever back down.

"Jack. You know he's an asshole. He won't say five words to any of us. He tries to avoid meals with us. I've heard you call him an asshole yourself. Hell, I don't think he even knows Amy's name. He calls her 'you damn hippie' like that's ok. Someone has to do something about him."

Something in Jack snapped. "Yeah, you know, you're right. He does skip meals with ya'll. To work one a his three jobs, so that we can let ya'll go on the rent for as long as you want. And he doesn't talk much, probably doesn't have the energy after he's done building you a three-car garage and a front porch and a back porch and fixing your plumbing and cleaning out the gutters so your roof don't leak and replacing the hot water heater with the money he earned from one of his three jobs when he'd just as soon take a cold shower just 'cause Amy complained one time. You're right. He doesn't give a fuck about any a you. Now I meant what I said. You can leave if you don't like it." Jack stood up from the couch and stormed out onto the back deck.

He draped his arms over the railing, itching for a cigarette, but they were in the kitchen, and he'd have to run the gauntlet to get them. He hated times like this, but he had to admit that all families had them. Hell, most families had it worse. Jack had come to grips already with the way they all were, the awkward tilt of people who knew each other and still didn't quite understand each other. He knew he'd made Jen feel like shit, and frankly, he was a little embarrassed about that. She'd touched a nerve, probably only just miffed about Ennis missing dinner. It didn't mean Jen had the right to accuse Ennis of anything with regards to Amy, though. That had been the last straw. Ennis loved Amy like the daughters he never got to see, daughters he was estranged from. If he had heard what Jen said... but he hadn't, and he wouldn't. Everyone knew that. Jack stared out into the leafless trees that marked their yard, peppered as it was with lawn furniture that was somehow still in its summer configuration.

The door behind him slid open.

"Yo, Jack."

Jack spun just in time to catch his pack of cigarettes sailing towards him. The lighter on its heels dropped to the deck, and he bent, grunting a bit as his beer belly deprived him of air, to pick it up. He really ought to do some exercises, get rid of this spare tire. If he made it his New Year's resolution, it'd be the fifth year in a row. He must have lost a pound or two in all those years, right?

"Jason. What brings ya out here to my lovely abode, el doghouse?"

Jason laughed. "Jen feels like an ass."

"Yeah, I know. Shit." He lit his smoke, took a drag, offered the pack to Jason.

"No way, man. You have to stop offering. I'm never going to accept."

Jack shrugged. "You have a mysterious lack of vices, Jason."

Jason laughed again. "Then maybe you don't know me very well."

"Try me."

"Well..." Jason draped his arms over the railing as well, watching the cool night and the fading sunlight of southwest Colorado. "Did you know that Amy and I..."

Jack turned his head to catch Jason's eye. "'Bout fucking time."

"Kenny doesn't even know yet."

"Well it ain't my place to tell him."

"Is it your place to tell Ennis?" Jason sounded nervous.

Jack blew out a long stream of breath, sighing. "Ain't much I don't tell Ennis."

"I know."

"Well, son, I don't see how I can not tell him. If he finds out later that I knew, it'll be my hide."

"I know." Disappointment, now.

"Aw, don't worry so much about it. He ain't gonna kill you."

"Are you so sure?"

"...Nope. Jus'... don't hurt her." Jack laughed.

Jason's laugh was decidedly more nervous.

Jack exhaled again, smoke mingling with steam in the cool air, when he heard the truck rumble up the driveway. It was too soon after that little fight. Jack wasn't ready. Jason cleared his throat and went back inside without preamble.

Jack was nearly done his cigarette when the door slid open again.

"Jack?"

"Yup."

"Y'alright?"

"Yup."

Jack passed the pack of cigarettes over his shoulder, and Ennis lit one, leaning next to him against the railing, carefully arranging the pack between them, idly lining it up with the edge of the railing. "Somethin' wrong?" Ennis pointed back inside.

"You noticed?"

"They all actin' like they seen a ghost when I came in."

"Jen and I jus' had a little fight."

"Oh. She an opinionated gal."

"Yup."

"Nothin' too bad, I hope?"

"Nah." Jack stubbed out the cigarette on the railing. "I just made her feel like an ass, and I feel like an ass myself about that. How was your day?" Jack swung his head to face Ennis.

Ennis looked back, smiling from lips to eyes. "Well, I'll tell you bud, I am beat."

"Come on in. There's plenty a leftovers." Ennis followed Jack inside and straight into the kitchen.

Jason was hunched over his guitar, tuning. Jack swore whenever Jason was hunched over his guitar, he was tuning it. "You ever play anything on that thing?"

Jason speared Jack with a glance. "I tune because I care."

"No reason to care if you don't play anything."

Jen was standing quietly by the sink. Su was sitting next to Jason, watching his fingers in an after-dinner glazed stupor that could have been the sign-post for this particular holiday.

Jack walked right up to Jen where she was staring into the sink. He laid one strong hand on each of her slender shoulders, squeezing. "We alright, Jen?"

She nodded dejectedly toward the sink.

"Nah, come on now." He pried her carefully off the sink, noticing her knuckles clenched red. She kept her head down.

"Jenny, I didn' mean half of what I said, an' I know you didn't either. Let's have us some desert, ok?" Jack was the only person who had called her Jenny in her life. They all knew that. She nodded towards the floor.

Jack, renewed, turned towards Su. "What'd ya'll make?"

"There's pecan, apple, and pumpkin." Su's glazed eyes smiled up at Jack's. Another evening restored.

"Great, I'll make some coffee. Meet ya'll at the dining room table in five." Jack started filling the coffee pot with water.

"What'll you have, Jack?" Jen was looking a little more herself, smile back on her lips, and when he turned to answer, she was handing Ennis a beer.

Ennis had used these intervening moments to quickly and impiously unwrap Jen and Su's carefully-foiled leftovers. He was piling the food high on a plate. Noting that multiple people were looking at him all of a sudden, he nodded. "This all looks mighty good. Thank you, ladies."

Su chuckled.

"Jack?" Jen was poised with a knife over the array of pies.

"Aw, hell, it's Thanksgiving, right? Give me some of each."

Su chuckled again.

"Whipped cream or ice cream?" Jen asked

"Uh, yes, please, ma'am." Jack noticed Ennis shoot a forked glare in his direction. "Oh shut up, you. Like you got any right ta criticize. I see your plate. Could feed eight people!"

"You the one sayin' I need to put on weight." It was barely mumbled before Ennis shuffled on clearly-sore feet towards the dining room.

"Hey Jay, go get the kids." Jack pushed the button on the coffee maker, and started assembling cups. "An' find out who wants coffee."

Three minutes later, the seven of them were seated around the eight-person oak table that stood like a sentry of all things proper in the center of the large, Victorian dining room. It was used two or three times a year, but when they used it, they used it well.

They were an unlikely group, and Jack never expected... well, he never expected anything like this. Years ago, now-- almost fifteen years ago, when things between him n' Ennis had really fallen apart, Jack had left Lureen and lit out for Durango, Colorado, where he'd found a scrubby little apartment, and started work for a rental company. They did rentals of anything, from popcorn poppers to large backhoes. Jack was their number one sales guy to this day, and now general manager. It beat working for LD, and most of the people around RCS, as it was called, kissed the ground he walked on. Not to mention that most of them called him friend.

After a year of that, and his trips to visit Ennis becoming more emotionally stunted, Jack decided to put down roots, began looking for houses. That was about the time that Ennis's oldest, Junior, got married, and she moved off with her roughneck husband to Texas, following the oil as he had to do. Francine and Ennis hadn't never been close, and Alma kept that girl under lock and key emotionally as well as physically. The ranch where Ennis worked closed down, and Ennis had found himself homeless, family-less, and friendless.

And that was how Ennis'd come to be pretending to be sleeping on a friend's couch in Durango. Jack knew Ennis'd had to bend his pride more than double to show up there, all his belongings in the back of a truck that had barely made it, but it was a gamble with a sure payoff. No way Jack could turn him away, and he hadn't.

Jack continued the house search, silently, no agreement whatsoever made between them with words, understanding that this was for them now and not for him. He'd settled on an old Victorian well outside the town limits. A rare find for sure. It looked like it had been yellow once, with white trim. Five bedrooms, two and a half baths. It was about as beat up as an old house could get, but it had five acres and a barn. Ennis'd had to sell his horses in a last-ditch attempt to keep his trailer before the bank had foreclosed on even that piece of crap (though Jack thought it was humorous they probably hadn't got more than ten dollars by repossessing it. Not that he'd seen it, but he knew Ennis, and Ennis wouldn't live anyplace worth anything without prodding).

Jack knew Ennis still carried financial scars, in addition to the emotional ones that went with being bankrupt and homeless and middle-aged and alone. Ennis didn't want the kind of time and money commitment the house represented.

Jack closed on it two days later.

They'd worked their asses off to put it back together. There wasn't much that didn't need to be redone, or done for the first time, and it was a level of work they had never really slackened off on, even when the floors were mostly level, and the toilets all flushed, and the bats stopped showing up in the spare bedrooms.

Ennis had worked full time on the house for the year he was unemployed. Jack knew he felt useless, purposeless, and some days Jack had gotten home to find Ennis hadn't done any work on the house, had just gotten drunk somewhere. Those were the worst days. Jack didn't know what kind of bruise Ennis's ego was sporting, but he didn't think it was just skin deep. Sometime that next year, though, he'd come home to see Ennis smiling and drinking, a new occurrence. He'd passed Jack a beer, and announced that he was now the new head wrangler at the Bar J.

The Bar J was a guest ranch about forty miles away. The drawback was that Ennis was going to have to lead some trail rides, give some lessons. He wasn't a people person, but it was a job that involved working with three junior wranglers, great pay, and mostly just horses. Ennis was glowing. It turned out they didn't even need their own barn, since the Bar J let him use one of their best mares anytime he wanted, for work or pleasure. Jack and Ennis had never gone riding again. Jack missed it badly, but he didn't think Ennis wanted him anywhere near his work, and truth be told, he didn't want to jeopardize Ennis's job. That jobless year had been a tough one for Ennis, and Jack was not eager to relive it. Maybe someday they'd get around to fixing up that old barn.

As far as Jack knew, anyway, no one at the Bar J knew about his and Ennis's living situation. It was common enough knowledge in Durango, now, he bet, though he had no proof of that. But the Bar J was pretty far in another direction, near another city, and no one there would get the town gossip from Durango.

Ennis had gotten some other jobs: an emergency maintenance position, also at the Bar J, weekends and evenings, and in downtown Durango, as an employee of this general contracting business owned by an ex-truck-driver named Magnus. The combination kept him busy all the time for fifteen years. But Jack never once complained, because he remembered that one year, and anything was better than that.

Well, even with the four jobs, the house came to be too much. The maintenance work was too daunting for the size of their bank account (a joint one by the simple fact that Ennis kept his money in a billfold in his bedside table, from which Jack stole liberally to deposit into the bank), and Ennis was too tired to even work on it any more, though he tried against all reason.

It was Claire who first found out about Ennis. She was the tiny Chinese-American wife of Magnus. They made an unlikely pair, Magnus standing well over six feet, and Claire not an inch over five. He liked to declare how Scottish he was at every opportunity, though he was born in New Jersey.

At any rate, Ennis had forgotten his paycheck there one day, so she'd driven over to deliver it. She either didn't notice, or didn't mind, that Ennis was living with another man, but given the sheer number of bedrooms in their house, it probably wasn't too hard to imagine that they had separate ones. She'd marveled at the house, the newly-refurbished hardwood floors, the Victorian detailing in the kitchen, the faded white gables, the faded yellow paint. "You know, you really should paint this thing, rent out rooms. You could have a little bed-and-breakfast."

Jack, more privy to just exactly what their balance was in the bank account, had listened with both ears. When all was said and done, it wasn't any kind of bed-and-breakfast or anything, just a boarding house. Or that's what it was meant to be.

Jeremy'd been first. Jack put an ad in the paper for roommates. Jeremy lived with them for six months, and every day of those six months, Ennis had slept in a separate bedroom. Jeremy paid half-price on the rent, and in exchange helped them fix up the place. He'd moved on, but on his heels came Sharon.

Ennis hadn't wanted to rent to a woman, and the ad said men only, but Sharon'd had some troubles with her ex-husband and had pleaded with them, said she felt safer under a roof with a couple of men. Ennis, seeing her naked fear and knowing it was true that she would be safe here, had accepted her. And what's more, noticing her jumpy nervousness even around them-- had come out to her.

Thinking back on that sent thrilling shivers down Jack's spine. Ennis had moved back into the master bedroom that day, at Sharon's sweet insistence, and hadn't moved back out in all these years, not even for one night.

Sharon had lived there a couple of years, and while she was there, her friend Susan had moved into another one of the bedrooms. Susan, it turned out, had also had troubles with her ex-husband. For a while, Su took every opportunity to explain how Sharon's courage had given her the strength to steal away in the middle of the night, leaving her two teenage children in the clutches of the person known only to Jack and Ennis as "that man." Su hadn't heard a peep from her ex-husband or kids since the divorce and restraining order had gone through. You could see it dancing in her eyes, like how sometimes Jack caught Ennis thinking about Francine or Junior, could tell what it was by the color of the gaze, even if he never said anything. And he never, ever did.

Sharon'd eventually married a schoolteacher and moved to Fort Collins. Su was still there. Her emotional recovery had been rocky. She had always had trouble making rent, trouble keeping a job. Sometimes she would stay at home a lot. Jack had caught her crying when she thought no one was around to see her. Guy, the fat yellow tabby cat, was Jack's heroic attempt to help Su, and he had, but she was still working to get to where she needed to be. It'd been ten years, and now at least she had a steady job as a coffee-shop waitress. It wasn't much, but she'd made the rent a couple times this year. Su helped out around the house a lot to make it up to them: laundry, dishes, cooking, that sort of thing.

Well, but Su hadn't been helping them make ends meet. They couldn't kick her out, and didn't want to, but they'd needed a real tenant. That'd been Joanna, for a while.

Joanna was a rancher's daughter, but she'd run away from home with a boyfriend, and landed with very little to her name near to the reservation where her parents lived. She'd lived with Jack and Ennis for a year before getting up the nerve to go back home. But she was smart, and held a steady job at the library. She'd never been late on rent once.

A few more tenants came and went, a few months here, a few months there, one man who'd even spouted out some foul language about Jack and Ennis's lifestyle before storming out a month into his stay. Ennis'd taken it like a man, though.

It was about six years ago now that Jack had found out that the newest employee at RCS, a Canadian teenager, was living in her car about two blocks away from his work.

Amy had been a runaway too, like Joanna. Jack and Ennis seemed to attract house guests who didn't want people asking too many questions, because Jack and Ennis never asked, in exchange for having none asked of them. Joanna was smart, but Amy was... she got her GED without them even knowing about it, while working two jobs to pay rent. She ended up going to CU Boulder, putting herself through college, probably with another eighteen jobs, although maybe she had scholarships. Jack had never asked. But every school break, summer vacations, you name it, she didn't go back to her parents that she'd never spoken of, she came back to Durango, and to Jack and Ennis.

She'd graduated with a degree in journalism. Jack had to miss her graduation for work, but Ennis took off from two jobs to drive across the state of Colorado and spend money on a motel to see Amy cross a stage.

Amy'd been working and living since then, two years, in Denver, in an apartment with three other smart young ladies. Jack knew an awful lot about them because Ennis had gone nosing into everything about their lives. She still came home to Durango for holidays.

Kenny and Jason were brothers and community college students. Kenny was one of those born-again Christians, which had spooked Ennis right off the bat, but he'd turned out to be alright. He was known to avert his gaze when Jack and Ennis climbed the stairs together. Jack secretly suspected the reason Kenny was uncomfortable with this situation, but forcing one man out of the closet was more than enough for his lifetime, and he wasn't in the habit of sticking his nose where it didn't belong.

Jason was more into music, or whatever it was you could call what he was into. He had a couple acoustic guitars, a couple electric guitars, and he'd re-wallpapered his room in posters. He wore black clothes, but he was a sweet kid. He reminded Jack of Bobby.

Bobby ended up as a financial advisor, he had a wife named Lynn, and a little girl named Edith. Jack heard from him in Christmas cards, but hadn't seen Bobby since Edith wasn't even two. Since he'd told Bobby he was gay.

As for Ennis and his girls-- well, Ennis was too proud to contact Alma, too scared to contact Francine, and didn't know any other way to find Junior. Jack got the feeling Ennis was waiting around for them to find him, secretly hurt that they hadn't yet, that they didn't miss him as much as he missed them with every moment of his day.

Jen was a friend of Su's and had moved in about a year ago. She was the newcomer here, a lawyer in the town who handled mostly civil cases. Surely she could have afforded her own place, but she hadn't wanted the hassle of a house, or the congestion of the town, so here she was. Jack liked her in some fundamental way. Maybe she reminded him of Lureen when Lureen'd been young and eager to make her way in the world, full of sugar and vinegar both.

"Yo, John-boy!"

"Jack?"

Jack shook his head to clear it. "Huh? What?"

"I've been asking for the sugar for like ten minutes over here!" Amy had her brow furrowed.

"Well, maybe if you didn't call me 'John-boy' I'd pass it to you."

Amy frowned. "Hey, that wasn't me." She pointed at Jen with her fork.

Jen had a 'wanna take this outside' grin on.

"Well, Jenny-benny and I jus' might have ta have a little talk about that." Jack threw a wink at her, glad to see Jen back to her normal self.

"Well," Ennis sighed, standing, his own tiny slice of pumpkin done before Jack had even finished one massive slice of any of his three. "I'm beat an' a half. I'ma go ta bed."

Jack heaved a sigh. "Yup. An' this is comin' with me." He balanced his plate of pie in one hand, swiping the leftover cheap bottle of some red wine with the other, turning to follow Ennis out of the room. He heard playful titters and jocularity behind him. It had been a good Thanksgiving, though it wasn't over yet.

Ennis was leading up the stairs, head bent down towards the floor like he was too tired to use his neck. "You're a fool, you know that?"

Jack, struggling to balance the desserts and wine, laughed deep and pure. He had no defense against the truth.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU. Sometime in 1982, Jack divorces Lureen and moved to Durango, Colorado. He continues seeing Ennis, but when Ennis's ranch closes and Junior moves to Texas, Ennis is left with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Against all expectations, he drives down to Colorado to sleep on the couch of a 'friend'. Set in 1997, this story picks up fifteen years later. It's mellow, J&E already living together in domesticity and forever, and contains a lot of OCs.

Jack was peeling his shirt off when Ennis turned to him across the bed.

"Where's Ames sleepin', huh?"

Jack stopped mid-peel and reversed his action, pulling his shirt back on. He knew this was going to be his to deal with, because Ennis had already taken off his shoes, and no way Ennis would go tromping around in the house in what equated to him as the altogether. Besides, best he deal with it anyway. He had some idea of where Amy might be sleeping, and it likely wasn't on the couch.

Descending the stairs, he found that only Amy, Kenny, and Jason were still up, this time leaning over a Yahtzee board. Amy giggled and Kenny sneered.

"Who's winnin'?" Jack approached the group.

"Jason," Kenny grumbled.

"And he didn't even want to play." Amy's eyes were sparkling fond amusement at Kenny.

"That's great," Jack answered, utterly distracted and already unable to remember who the victor was. "Ames, babe, where are you sleepin'?"

Amy stared up at Jack with big brown eyes, her short, black-dyed bob-cut bouncing on her ears, her skinny legs kicking in the air.

Jason came to her rescue. "Oh, uh. You 'member earlier, Jack?"

"Yeah. Alright. I guessed as much."

"You told him?" Amy hissed at Jason.

"Told him what?" Kenny's wide eyes looked on. Clearly he was sensing that he was left out of something.

"Um. Amy and I are... seeing each other."

Kenny managed to make a face that passed as both shock and disapproval, and Jack laughed it off. "Alright. I'm going to bed. Until I say so, anyone asks, Jason, you slept on Kenny's floor tonight. Alright?" Jack was already ascending the stairs.

"Night, Jack!" Jason called after him.

Jack heard unamused and hurt whispers and grumbles over the Yahtzee board.

When morning came, Jack got up with Ennis to scavenge breakfast before Ennis headed off to the Bar J, already wearing his denim shirt with its little logo. It was after the end of the guest season now, so his hours there were less, but there was still a herd to see to, and it was prime maintenance time there for the men. It wasn't like they'd asked him to work the day after Thanksgiving, but he was going in anyhow.

It was what was there, so they both made themselves turkey sandwiches for breakfast. Jack reckoned they'd be having turkey for a while. Su was wandering in, sleepy, starting coffee in her long blue bathrobe. They exchanged quiet 'good morning's.

"Don't like the hippie sleepin' next ta them boys," Ennis grumbled, out of nowhere.

"For christsakes. You think Jason gonna assault her?"

"Well, what 'bout Ken?"

Su and Jack both gaped at Ennis, until he mumbled and stuffed some more turkey in his mouth.

The three of them were the earliest risers, but the house was slowly waking up around them. Jen stumbled downstairs in loose satin pajamas that hid every last part of her figure. Her long, dark blond hair was well-brushed, though, and under her arm was a big old notebook. Jen didn't have much right to call Ennis a workaholic. She carried some case or another around with her most days, but maybe that's why she was so sensitive to the issue. If she'd taken Thanksgiving off, maybe she thought everyone should. Jen grabbed an extra-large mug of coffee and plopped down at the kitchen table, glassy-eyed.

"Sleep well?" Jack asked.

Jen just shrugged. She was the antithesis of a morning person.

"What's on your schedule today?" Susan asked Jack.

"Well, you know that front step's loose. Gotta fix that. Then maybe check the insulation in the attic, add some more before winter."

Ennis nodded, then got up and started wrapping aluminum foil around some other left-overs for his lunch. Finished, he hovered awkwardly behind Jack like he did every day. He'd done this every day for more years than Jack could count. And, just like every day, Ennis settled for patting Jack lightly on the shoulder before saying, “See you later,” and heading out the door.

Jack called “Bye” after him.

The women didn't say anything because they knew Ennis's salutation hadn't been for them.

Once Ennis had left, Jack got up and went about his day. It was a cold morning, but the sun lent it some warmth, enough to fix the front step anyway. The railing was also completely loose, so Jack tore that out while he was at it.

When he came in for lunch, he found Amy, Kenny, and Jason each spread out on their own pieces of the dining room table with papers and books. Usually Kenny and Jason did their homework in their rooms, but he guessed Amy's presence counted as a special occasion. Amy was always hard at work on something-- unless she was hard at play.

Jack grabbed a turkey sandwich, slathering some cranberry sauce on an onion roll to use it as bread. He sat down next to Jason and plopped his plate right on top of the homework that looked as good as gibberish to him.

“Hey,” Jason mumbled.

“What the hell is this, anyway?”

“Statistics.”

“Oh... Well. I'm headed to the hardware store. Any takers?”

Jason, who'd seemed highly invested in his statistics homework moments before, was already packing it up.

Kenny'd been working on something on paper himself, but he grinned and started packing too, following his brother's lead even though he was the elder by a year. When he was done, he leaned back and sighed, running a hand through his short, brown-blond hair. “I hate homework,” he added, as if someone had said otherwise.

“Amy?” Jack asked.

“Not me,” Amy muttered distractedly. “I have a major article to write. On abortion. I cannot believe that assholes would feel like they have a right to tell people what they can do with their own bodies.”

All eyes flew to Amy.

“Seriously,” Jason mumbled, clearly directing his remark to Amy and Amy alone. “Next thing you know, Christians might be against birth control.”

Kenny was shooting daggers at both of them, and Jack was thinking this might be the time to beat a hasty retreat, back to insulation and things he understood. But before he got a chance, the conversation went downhill and he was sucked in.

“It's not even the same thing. You're talking about killing a child. Who's going to stand up for the child's rights while you're standing up for the mother's?” Kenny was making a strange face that Jack recognized as indignation.

“You have got to be joking. It's not a child yet. It's like, a little blob of cells,” Amy groaned.

“You can't just kill a child because you didn't want one.”

“Well why not?” Amy asked, frustration leaking through, her volume rising. “People shouldn't be having kids unless they're ready for them. The world's overpopulated enough as it is.”

“Hey now,” Jack simply had to step in. “Let's not yell. And no offense, Amy, but you don't know a lot about having kids. Don't think anyone's ready for them, whether they want them or not.”

All eyes settled on Jack for a moment before Amy said, “I didn't think you knew a lot about it either, Jack.” She raised an eyebrow.

It seemed Jack's personal don't-ask-don't-tell policy with regards to his past had come back to bite him in the ass. “My son might beg to differ.” He took a swallow from his glass of water. “And I didn't want kids,” he added. “Ennis wanted his girls. Well, he wanted boys, but... well, it doesn't matter. Once you hold a baby in your arms, you understand that it doesn't matter what you wanted, doesn't matter how big a mistake it is...” Jack gathered his dishes up, finding he couldn't finish his sentence. He thought on Bobby who wouldn't come to visit him, on Edith, who must've been twelve or thirteen by now. He wouldn't recognize her if she walked by on the street. Some days were harder than others. “Anyone wants to go to the hardware store, the bus leaves in fifteen.” Jack left the dining room quickly, very conscious of the three pairs of eyes that followed him.

 

"They can't carry a tune. That's all I'm saying."

"That's how they want to sing."

"Are you saying they could sing in tune if they wanted to?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Then why don't they?"

"It's not their style."

Jack interrupted Kenny and Jason's little argument. "What the hell are you two on about?"

"The Offspring," Jason was quick to answer.

"The what?" Jack asked.

"They stink," Kenny added.

"They're only one of the most poignant and individualistic punk groups of all time."

"As long as you don't mind out-of-tune screaming."

"Exactly."

Kenny sighed with exasperation.

"And have you heard their lyrics?" Jason continued.

"Yeah, at three a.m. every night for the past seven years," Kenny groaned.

"Well, if you don't hear poignancy, you must not be listening," Jason huffed.

"Could you guys just shut up for a second and pass me the utility knife?"

The three of them were in one of the smaller crawl-spaces off the attic, replacing the old fiberglass with slabs of foam insulation one set of studs at a time. Jack had been listening to this brotherly bickering for about three hours, and his patience was wearing thin. Days like this he was glad he was an only child. Still, it wasn't so different from the arguments he got into with Ennis. Except those ended with sex half the time, which made them worth it. He got the impression from Kenny and Jason they'd had this particular argument more then a dozen times.

"Now, Green Day's a good punk group," Kenny said.

"I'm not about to argue there," Jason was nodding. "Do you know The Hippos?"

"Who?" Kenny asked, and Jack felt grateful that he wasn't the only one in the dark.

"They're punk. Well I guess they're technically more ska."

"You have gone way beyond my musical knowledge, man."

"Mine too," Jack chimed in, just because.

Jason laughed. "Hey! Jack man! Who do you like?"

"What?"

"Who do you like? Musicians."

"None of this HippoDay or whatever."

"No, come on. Who was your big deal back in the day?"

"I didn't have much call to listen to a lot of music."

"Aww, but you must have listened to some."

Jack shrugged, raking through dead leaves of hurt and old memories of a life that felt like it was lived by someone else now. "Always was a fan of old Hank Williams."

"Yeah, that's good shit," Jason approved. "You know my favorite Hank Williams song? How's it go..." Jason flopped onto his back on the attic floor, his voice growing serious and stern. He had a good singing voice, and he started the fast song with dirge-slowness. It echoed in the wooden rafters. "Why don’t you love me like you used to do? How come you treat me like a worn-out shoe? My hair’s still curly and my eyes are still blue, why don’t you love me like you used to do?"

Jason rose up on his elbows and looked at Jack. Jack saw that both Kenny and Jason were staring at him. The song seemed to roll on, and Jack pushed away a lonely feeling. He knew from long and grueling experience that the best way to deal with that was just to keep himself busy.

"Jack?" Jason asked.

"Pass up some more of that insulation," Jack instructed, wiping his nose on his sleeve. There was some dust up here or something because his eyes and nose were sure watering.

 

Ennis got home after ten at night, and Jack had already slipped off to sleep. When Jack got up the next morning, Saturday, Ennis was gone already, back to the ranch. Jack had to be at RCS anyway.

When Jack was finally climbing into his truck to head for work, Amy came running out to catch him. Her short hair was glued to her head with pins. Despite the cold air, she was wearing just a white tank top over long black pants and black boots, a white sweater tied around her tiny waist.

"What is it?" Jack rolled down the window.

"You're going to work?"

"That was the plan."

"Hang on! I want to see the guys while I'm in town."

Before Jack even had time to respond, Amy was throwing herself into the passenger seat of the small truck.

When they got to RCS, Trevor was the only one scheduled to work with Jack today. Amy was nonplussed. She vaulted into a sitting position on the counter and immediately got down to flirting with the 20-something local. Jack shook his head and announced that he would be locking himself in the office for the morning.

Around eleven o'clock, Jack heard the front door open. Almost immediately, Amy was calling, "Jack, someone wants to see the manager!"

Their atmosphere was pretty casual, and yelling across the "showroom" (which is what they called the small, well-lit warehouse that served as the rental center) was the main mode of communication around here anyway. Jack opened his office door, shoes squeaking on white linoleum floor. He could already hear a customer, a young man, stammering, "What, no, I didn't ask to speak to any manager."

Confused, Jack peered around the corner-- and smiled. He walked over to the sales desk and leaned against it as provocatively as he could manage without being too blatant. "What can I do you for?"

"Oh, we don't need to see any manager," the young man continued. "We just had a reservation for an industrial-sized jackhammer."

Jack eyed the young man's silent, blushing companion. Amy handed Jack the paperwork. Jack read from the sheet. "The Bar J, huh? That's kind of far away to rent from us all the way out here."

"Oh, uh, Ennis here highly recommended this place."

"Did he now?"

Amy snickered. Trevor made himself busy under the counter, but Jack could see that his face was turning red.

"Well, why don't you let my lovely associate here ring you up while I show your partner," Jack leaned on the word, "how to jackhammer."

At that, Amy tried her damnedest not to explode, feigning a coughing fit. Ennis's face gave the lid of Trevor's Coke bottle a run for its money in the red department. He was only too eager to follow Jack out of the showroom.

“You tryin' a get me fired,” Ennis hissed in accusation as soon as they were in the fresh air.

Jack chuckled. “Don't be an idiot. That guy looked about as naïve as they come. And there ain't no way he's your boss.”

Ennis nodded, so Jack knew he couldn't be too far off. True to his word, he took Ennis back to the proper piece of machinery, the John Deere 710 C, inserting the key and starting her up to make sure everything was in working order.

But Jack, as usual, had a plan. He'd been meaning to break this news to Ennis for a couple days now, but his minutes in the proximity of Ennis in their daily orbits had been too few and too precious to be wasted on something that was without a doubt going to turn into Ennis-sulking time in short order. This way Jack could let Ennis sulk at work. “You driving this all the way back to the Bar J or does your friend got the honors?” Jack asked.

Ennis smiled. “I ain't that foolish. Drove my truck so he gets to drive this all that way.”

Jack nodded and smiled back. “Good. I don't wanna have ta peel you off of the road anywhere.”

Ennis nodded.

Jack paused, hesitating, but he knew their time was running short and it was now or never. “Look, there's something you should know about Amy.”

That got Ennis's attention. He was staring at Jack now.

“She's, uh, she's dating Jason. That's where she slept last night.”

Ennis’s face turned to stone, thunderheads rolling in against ever-darkening skies.

“Now you remember she's an adult. She can do what she wants--”

“Not under my roof she can't--”

“Jason's a paying customer an' that's his room—”

“I don't--”

Ennis's growing anger was interrupted by the object of the conversation, Amy, as she called out a wise warning through the rows of machinery. “Jack, are you back here?”

Ennis visibly started. Jack jumped down stiffly from the jackhammer, ignoring the glowers still raining down from Ennis above.

Amy and the young man appeared, but Jack could feel Ennis's unease, that the issue was still unnerving him. Jack didn't quite get it. To Jack, Amy was an adult, Jason was an adult, they were their own people, and their business was their own, but the quiet tension Jack could feel, even from six feet away, boiling off of Ennis spoke differently.

The young man was going to be towing the machinery on a trailer all the way back to the Bar J, plus probably driving it some there, so Jack had to show this kid how to handle it. He knew what Ennis wanted, so he turned to Amy.

“Amy, Mr. Del Mar here was hoping you could go over some of the finer points of the contract with him while I show Mr.--”

“Kelly. James Kelly.”

“Mr. Kelly here how to handle this fine piece of machinery. You mind?”

Amy's mouth dropped open. “Uh... sure.”

Ennis's eyes were clouded over, but he hopped off of the jackhammer and muttered a “thank you,” and though it was directed at Amy, Jack strongly suspected it was intended for himself.

Jack directed James with the careful precision of someone who knew that a single mistake with this piece of equipment could result in loss of life or limb. James wasn't more than twenty-eight or twenty-nine, but he listened with rapt attention. Jack guessed Ennis was his boss, and the kid wanted to put in a good showing. Still, Jack was slightly distracted. He glanced up now and then to see Amy and Ennis exchanging hushed words. Amy was alternating between defiance and confusion, Ennis between concern and trepidation. Slowly, though, their conversation seemed to slow and reach a flat note. They were clearly coming to some agreement, and just as Jack couldn't find anything left to talk about, having explained the entire workings of the machine about six times and moved on to the finer points of the type of oil used in the joints, which, thank goodness, he only knew about because of its being the same kind in use in combines and tractors.

At last James and Ennis were off. Jack raised a hand at the face he saw watching him out of a side view mirror, and went about the rest of his day working on bills while Amy and Trevor rented popcorn poppers and wood chippers.

When closing time finally came at seven o'clock, Jack asked Amy if she minded stopping by the grocery store. He had some items to pick up, though he wouldn't-- couldn't, really-- answer when she asked him what they were.

Amy seemed to take the hint, though. They split up in the store. She went to scout the organic food section, or, as Jack liked to think of it, the 'overpriced-but-you’re-a-hippie-so-we-can-take-you-for-a-ride' section. He'd been raised on a ranch and worked around farmers and rancher folk all his life, and he didn't think that food was any better or worse than what came from anywhere else. But he wouldn't tell Amy that. What she wanted to waste her own hard-earned money on was her own business.

And Jack, for his part, had his own business to conduct. He wasn't an apologetic man about his habits in life, but there are always some things you feel self-conscious about putting in your grocery basket. He honestly wasn't sure which bothered him more-- the lube or the anniversary card. It was a toss-up. Or it would have been if he hadn't backed out of the lube aisle and run into some woman, only to find himself holding a tube of lube and staring at Susan.

"Oh! Sorry, Jack."

"No, it's..." Jack threw the tube into his basket like it was on fire. She noticed, though. He could see it in her eyes that were trying not to laugh at him.

"Didn't you bring Amy with you?"

"Yeah, she, uh, went...she's looking at the, you know, her food."

"Oh yeah," Susan said, all business again. "I got her some of those fake sausages she likes." Susan was rummaging around in her cart, blissfully bringing Jack back to the comfortable role of landlord. Susan did most of the grocery shopping for them all, of course with money Jack and Ennis gave her. It had become really unpractical for them all to try and have separate food, especially since Susan had started taking up cooking for everyone so many years ago now. Instead, they'd raised rent a little to include board.

"You pick up any of that Oreo pie that I like?"

"We have three pies at home!"

"Yeah, but ain't none a them Oreo." At her slightly annoyed look, Jack was quick to add, "I mean, not that they aren't the best darn pies..."

“Right, whatever,” she laughed.

“You ready to check out?” Jack asked.

She pointed to the aisle next door. “If you let me grab some floss.”

When she was done with her own personal item, it being a good bit less personal than Jack's own, they walked side-by-side to the cash register, meeting Amy as she perused a copy of Time magazine with a strange expression on her face. She had a basket with some fruit and a newspaper, the handle hanging from one forearm.

Once at the belt, they had a shuffle to do. Jack put his own items in with Su's food. Su put her personal items aside. Amy put her food with the rest of the food, not asking, though Jack didn't care or mind, and was going to put her newspaper separate when Jack grabbed it and threw it on top. “Reckon we could all do with a little educatin',” he winked at her.

She was nodding when her expression changed. Jack saw what she'd noticed, and he knew he was in for it. Before he could react, though, Amy's thin arm had swooped down on the card.

“Oh my God, Jack--”

“Give it back--”

“Oh my God!”

“Give it--”

“For all the memories of yesterday--”

Jack groaned.

“Did you know about this, Su?”

“Ha, I saw the other anniversary present.”

But Amy wasn't paying attention and missed that juicy tidbit. “For the happiness of today, for the promise of tomorrow--”

“Amy...,” Jack pleaded.

“For all of this and more...” she stopped reading aloud then, though, and Jack could have thanked God in heaven.

Amy had a silly peaceful smile on her face. She handed the card off to Susan and muttered, “I'll be right back,” before bolting from the lane.

Susan looked it over briefly, smiling, and laid it back on Jack's pile.

Jack watched the direction Amy had taken with growing concern. “Shit.”

“What?” Susan turned to try and make out Amy's trajectory for herself.

“Good evening, Mr. Twist. Paper or plastic?”

“Hey, Jeanine. Do you think you could put the paper in the plastic?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Oh my God,” Susan muttered. “Jack, she's...”

“Yeah.” Jack watched Jeanine ring up their food with half his attention, the other half wondering what in the hell Amy was going to come back with.

“Ennis doesn't know we know that it's your anniversary.”

“Well, until just now, you were the only one who knew. And what's more, it's not. Not really. I mean, just sort of,” Jack sighed, but he knew Susan wouldn't ask more, and she didn't.

“Will he mind?”

Jack shrugged. “Probably not. I don't know. Maybe. Who cares?” He meant it, too.

“Anniversary?” Jeanine asked in that conversational way that all grocery cashiers must have to learn.

Jack restrained a curse. He tried not to talk so openly outside of the house, even if they were basically known around Durango, and even if Jeanine had dated Kenny for almost a month. Jeanine just smiled and said, “Have a good one,” though, as the bagging job fell to Alex, the bag boy.

Susan and Jack had already loaded the groceries into the trunk of Susan's rusty white Accord when Amy left the store, protecting a paper bag under her arm. It was clear Jack wasn't going to know the nature of its contents any time soon. He sighed and closed the trunk on the car.

“See you in a few,” he said to Susan.

“Yeah, and good luck,” she laughed, a genuine laugh like she didn't give often, and the sound warmed Jack's heart and almost made it worth the ribbing he was about to get.

Jack nodded and met Amy back at the truck, about to ride with the prankster herself into the trap she was laying right before his eyes. Whatever Amy had planned, it was likely to be sweet, sentimental, and thoroughly embarrassing.


	3. Yellow House on the Right: Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU. Sometime in 1982, Jack divorces Lureen and moves to Durango, Colorado. He continues seeing Ennis, but when Ennis's ranch closes and Junior moves to Texas, Ennis is left with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Against all expectations, he drives down to Colorado to sleep on the couch of a 'friend'. Set in 1997, this story picks up fifteen years later. It's mellow, J&E already living together in domesticity and forever, and contains a lot of OCs.

It was full evening when they got home. Jack got out to help Susan with the groceries, but Amy took her booty and bounded into the house awfully quickly.

"What's for dinner?" Jack's stomach was really the one asking the question. His mouth just went where his stomach led him.

"I was thinking pot roast," Su answered.

His stomach responded by rumbling loudly at the promise of savory meat. "Damn, you treat us too good."

Susan just smiled, and Jack knew she was glad to be appreciated.

Inside, Jason and Kenny were playing their video games on the living room floor.

"Hey. You boys want to take that upstairs so I can watch the news?"

They paused the game and Jason turned to look at him. "You can watch the news in my room."

Jack settled himself onto the old brown-striped couch. "That landfill? Think again. Is it such a hardship for you to go up there?"

"There's just a lot of wires and stuff," Jason sounded a little whiny. Bobby used to whine like that.

Jack sighed. "Alright. How about you just quit playing while I watch the news and then you can turn her back on."

"But we can't save here," Jason answered sharply.

Jack flicked his gaze to Kenny, but Kenny looked down. Jack looked back to Jason, but Jason couldn't hold out against Jack, who was land lord, patriarch, and father-figure, all rolled into one.

"Aww, man," Jason bitched, and he hit the power button on the system and turned some switches on the TV so Jack was watching his favorite news station. Jack leaned back to enjoy it-- well, as much as he could since it was about a shooting in Denver and a fire on the far side of town, stuff like that. But there was also a story about a kid who was recovering from cancer. Jack guessed that was supposed to make him feel good, but talk about kids with cancer didn't do any such thing, recovered or not.

"Man, that would suck. I mean, did you see how many surgeries that boy had? And he's only ten," Kenny echoed Jack's thoughts.

Jen came in the door then, waving the mail. Jack raised a hand in greeting, but Jen headed straight for the kitchen. The news went to commercial, and Jack got up to follow her, check on the mail, get a beer, and maybe check on the progress of that roast while he was at it.

Just as Jack was entering the kitchen, the phone on the wall by the fridge rang. Jen was nearest, mid-conversation with Susan, who was only just peeling carrots over the sink.

Jen picked it up and answered, "Hello? Hold on a second, he's right here." Holding the phone over her chest, she whispered to Jack, "It's for you."

Jack walked over and took the receiver, turning away from the gals as they continued where they'd left off in their talk. "Hello?"

"Hi."

"Hey. Who is this?"

"Hi, Dad? It's me."

"Bobby?" Jack ran a hand through his hair, caught off-guard. He felt his heart beat faster.

"Hi."

"What're you... you ain't..." _You ain't never called me before, not since_... Jack choked.

"Dad, I think we need to talk."

"You..."

"But that's not why I'm calling."

"Why... why are you calling?" Jack felt his voice shake.

"We're living in Houston now. I didn't tell you... I didn't tell you that Edith is about to have a little boy."

Jack felt his throat tighten. Jack's little boy didn't even want to tell him about his own little boy. "Well, congrats."

"I found a job that pays _significantly_ more money." Jack didn't miss the emphasis in Bobby's words. "But it's in Portland, and we have to move there next month. Edith won't be able to fly then, and we'll have to drive. I wouldn't want to trouble you any, but if you have the room... And like I said, we have to talk."

Jack swallowed around the unforgiving lump rising from his stomach. "Yeah, sure, Bob. Any time. We'll make the room."

"Thanks, Dad. I'll call you later to work out the details. I've got to go, but... It's real nice to hear your voice again."

Jack felt his chance slipping away and he grabbed it as shamelessly as his own father never would. "Listen, Bobby. I love you, ya hear? You can call any time."

"Thanks, Dad. I'm... thanks. I'll talk to you soon. Bye."

"Goodbye, son." Jack held the quiet receiver for a full five seconds after Bobby hung up, not even noticing that Jen and Su were watching him closely. He turned and grabbed three bottles of beer and a bag of chips, figuring dinner would be a while, and stormed back to the living room to make his stand of sanity in front of the TV until Ennis got home and they could make some sense out of this shit together.

When Ennis finally did come through the door, Jason and Kenny had each wandered their own direction, Jen had already announced she was going to shower, Amy was still MIA, and the news program had long ago turned into a game show that Jack was watching with one eye while his brain ran over and over his first conversation with Bobby in years.

Jack blinked and looked up as he heard the front door close and waited for Ennis to come down the hallway. The house was starting to smell like beef, so Jack wondered if maybe he'd dozed off for a little while. The clock on the VCR confirmed that suspicion.

When Ennis entered the room, Jack tried to shake himself awake. "How'd that, uh..."

"Yeah, just fine," Ennis answered.

"'S good," Jack nodded.

Ennis groaned and sagged down onto the couch next to Jack. "You run a pretty tight ship. There's a reason I recommended your place."

Jack looked up under his lashes, a smile playing over his lips. "You mean to say you didn't just recommend it because you got a crush on a manager?"

Ennis grimaced at the public flirting, but Jack didn't let those grimaces bother him anymore. He knew that underneath the public grimace was a private smile.

"Only recommend places I trust," Ennis asserted.

Jack snorted. "Glad you find me so damned trustworthy."

"Said the shop, not you."

Ennis snuck in an almost-hidden smile and Jack sighed in exhaustion and leaned back further into the comforting cushions of couch.

Ennis cast Jack a confused look. "Was just a joke."

Jack furrowed his brow and glared back at Ennis. "Yeah, I _know_. Wasn't thinkin' about that."

"Listen, if this is 'bout Amy, should probably talk 'bout that out back or something."

"Huh. You still on bout that?"

"On? She's not some... I ain't gonna talk about this here. Just said that."

Jack blew out a breath through his mouth like he was blowing out smoke from a cigarette. "I need a smoke." But he didn't move 'cause he was just too damned tired.

"Well, if your problem ain't about Amy..."

"What makes you think I got some problem?" Jack's voice was a little loud, and he had the unfortunate coincidence of asking the question just as Jen stepped into the room in sweats.

"Uh, sorry," Jen muttered, and she bee-lined into the kitchen.

"Shit," Jack cursed. "I hate fighting in front of people."

"What fighting? We ain't fighting. I'm just trying to have a conversation, but you won't even tell me what the conversation is about."

Jack was silent for a long, lonely moment before he forced the words out of his mouth. "Bobby called."

"Bobby...? The, uh, bartender--"

"Bobby, you asshole. My son."

Ennis didn't say anything. Jack thought he was trying to figure out the right place to look, the right thing to focus on, or maybe just trying to avoid looking at Jack without looking as if that was what he was trying to do.

"I, um." Ennis cleared his throat. "I don't know what to say, bud. Did it... go well?"

"Guess. He wants to come up here. Moving to somewhere. Portland. Wants to stay here on the way up. With his _family_. His wife is expecting a little boy. How about that?"

Ennis forced a smile and elbowed Jack lightly. "Congrats, bud."

Jack rubbed a weary hand over one eye. "I guess.... You know, I told him we had the room, and we don't have the room. Why would I do that?"

"We'll find it."

"Suppose so."

Jen knocked on the door frame between the kitchen and the living room just then. "Dinner," she called, her voice quiet in deference to the conflict she might be entering, though here and now the storm cell had failed to develop.

Everyone scurried to find or yell to a different housemate while Susan finished up the last bits of dinner, and soon they were eating as they usually did on a daily basis: buffet style, some people perched around the kitchen table, others plunked in front of the TV, whoever whereever.

After dinner and once the plates were cleared, Amy disappeared. Jack had pretty much forgotten about her plans, but she clearly had not. She returned a moment later with a small gift bag that she dropped into Ennis's lap. "Happy anniversary."

Jack cringed. Ennis let his mouth hang open a bit. "Uh, thank you." He reached in and pulled out a book.

"What is it?" Jack asked, leaning back to get the right angle so the glare on the cover would fade.

"Uh." Ennis cleared his throat and seemed like he was going to say, but he looked around and noticed all the eyes on him and stalled out.

" _Romantic Ideas to Light Up Your Love Life_ ," Jack read with a growing frown.

But Amy was unfazed. "You all need it, dude."

"I, um," Jack started. "Thank you. Now maybe we can worry 'bout this later." Jack set the book face down on the table next to the sofa, but the back only showed a man and a woman holding a rose and gazing into each other's eyes. He turned the book back over, not entirely sure which side was more embarrassing. "I need a smoke anyways."

"Think I could use one too," Ennis mumbled.

"Wait," Jason interrupted. "I didn't even know it was your anniversary. I didn't even know you had one! I mean, I guess everyone must have one..."

"Long story," Jack answered, by way of redirecting his line of inquiry. "And not one I'm about to go into."

"Fair enough." But Jason was frowning.

after grabbing a pack of smokes from the kitchen, Jack followed Ennis out into the night air that had turned suddenly unseasonably warm this evening. Ennis produced a lighter from his pocket.

"You tell them 'bout this?" Ennis grumbled around the cigarette.

Jack covered the flame with a careful hand, not wanting to be burned, as he lit up. He took a couple smooth drags to get going before he answered. "Su knew. I, uh, got you something. In the store today. Amy was there an' she can't mind her own goddamn business." Jack said it with a smile that crinkled up the corners of his eyes.

Ennis looked at him for a long moment in stillness before flicking his ash and twitching his lip up. "Can't even take a dump with her around half the time without her wantin' ta know if it was animal-friendly."

Jack laughed deep and true. They stood in companionable silence until their cigarettes were gone.

"Well," Jack said, "at least they all mean well. No problem, them knowing. Not much they don't."

"'S true enough," Ennis frowned.

"And besides," Jack leaned closer.

Ennis grunted deep in his throat, which Jack recognized as a question.

"Happy anniversary."

Ennis shook his head. "You're bad as them. Probably want ta do those romantic things."

"From the book?"

Ennis nodded.

"Well, we shouldn't totally cross 'em off before we know what they are."

Ennis shook his head again. "Nice out here."

"Sure is." They stayed out a while longer without the need for cigarettes as a convenient excuse to want time alone together under the starry sky.  


* * *

  
They all watched the door close with wide eyes. "The fuck," Jason murmured.

"It's _their_ business, not ours," Kenny reminded him.

"But, it's like, they think we're going to freak out or something over two gay guys having an anniversary."

"I don't think that's it," Jen said. "They're just, you know, private."

"Yeah, like what was that about Jack having a kid? And Ennis too?" Amy hissed. "When we were talking about abortion?"

"Oh my God!" Susan exclaimed. "I totally forgot! Jen, when we were in the kitchen earlier--"

"Yes, yes, someone called, and Jack called him 'son'. And said we'll make room!"

"What room? We're full up," Kenny muttered.

"Well, not for Jack's son we're not, obviously." Amy whacked Kenny playfully on the arm.

"He always picks the violent ones," Kenny grumbled about Amy.

Jason groaned. "Between Jack's son and this anniversary thing, why do I feel suddenly so in the way here?"

"Shhhh, we're not in the way," Su answered. "If we were in the way, you can bet Ennis would make it known."

Jason smiled weakly at that.

"Anyway, I better clean up from dinner." Su left, waved to the little conference still gathered on the carpet.

"I have some work to do," Jen sighed. "I guess it won't get more done by not doing it."

"Homework," Kenny said, rising and walking off up the stairs to his own room.

Jason sighed and took the opportunity to lean against Amy's arm. "What the hell is going on around here?"

Amy squeezed his knee. "Nothing's going on. You just haven't been getting your beauty sleep."

A wicked grin came over Jason's face. "How about we get some more not-beauty-sleep before Ennis comes back in here?"

Amy giggled and they trailed up the stairs in the dust left by Kenny's sullen footsteps.  


* * *

  
The early morning light seemed to scream through the bedroom window at Ennis as he climbed out of bed. Jack was still sound asleep. Ennis headed for the shower, trying not to pay any attention to the nervousness uncoiling in the pit of his stomach.

Bobby. Ennis had never met him. The little he'd heard was just that--little. Something about not being a good reader. Bobby'd done no good by Jack in Ennis's book, but he'd never hold his girls similarly at fault, so he couldn't wonder at Jack's readiness to forgive Bobby.

Still, Jack's son, his pregnant wife, and their daughter, coming to stay with Jack in the house where he lived with a man, Jack's son having full knowledge? Even if it was only a night, it made Ennis feel like retching with nervousness. He'd finished proving himself. Didn't have anyone left to impress but his bosses, and that was a different matter 'cause that was just whether he did what they paid him for. But Bobby was goin' to judge him, no way to prevent that, unless Ennis found a way to not be around. The thought was tempting. All he had to do was work late. But likely Jack would pitch a fit if Ennis didn't take off early, even. Sighing, Ennis stepped out of the shower and dressed.

Ennis stepped to the night table and picked up the card Jack had given him the night before. "For all the memories of yesterday, For the happiness of today, For the promise of tomorrow, For all of this and more, I love you. Happy Anniversary." It was a sentimental thing, a girlish thing, but it brought him a shiver of joy, too, so he couldn't complain. It wasn't really their anniversary, not a replay of the day they'd met nor of the day they'd first fucked, but it did mark the anniversary of the day Ennis'd shown up on Jack's doorstep, homeless and humbled and needing, more than a lover, a friend to take him in. Jack would always be that friend no matter what. The lover part weren't half bad either, and Ennis was already starting to feel the soreness of the night before.

Ennis leaned over and kissed Jack goodbye, rubbing his back through the covers. Jack made an unintelligible noise. Ennis was headed out early today on account of some overhaul they were doing on a high riding trail, combined with an appointment an underweight mare had with the horse doctor. He packed himself a lunch of leftover pot roast, grabbed a couple slices of white bread for breakfast, and got ready to spend the rest of the day worrying about Bobby Twist, and just what place Ennis would have if Jack ended up with a family that included more people than just Ennis himself.


End file.
